A worker on the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor project in Cincinnati died Saturday after the boom lift crane he was operating shifted and fell. Emergency crews responded to the West Third Street and Pete Rose Way area that morning, and the man was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he did not survive. Officials have not yet released his name, and the Ohio Department of Transportation confirmed he was a member of a Walsh-Kokosing crew.
Walsh-Kokosing Joint Venture, the main contractor on the multi-billion-dollar project, released a statement saying the company is saddened by the loss of a crew member and takes the safety of everyone working on the project seriously. Cincinnati’s Criminal Investigation Section and OSHA are both examining the incident, which is standard procedure when a death occurs on a construction site but also signals how closely the circumstances will be reviewed.
For those of us on the Suncoast, stories like this land a little differently. We know what major infrastructure work looks like up close, and plenty of our neighbors have spent careers in construction or sent family members off to job sites every morning. If you work in the trades or have loved ones who do, what’s your take on safety on today’s big projects? Let us know in the comments.
